Grand Masters of the United Grand Lodge of England [ugle] and of Scotland
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- Family history.
- The Stewartstown Affray.
- The Caledon connection.
- The 11th Lord Blayney as an original thinker.
Summary.The Blayney/Hope papers comprise c.3,000 documents, 1639-1950, relating to the Blayney estate at Castleblayney, Co. Monaghan (part of which was sold to the Upton family, Lords Templetow, of Templepatrick, Co. Antrim, in 1723 and the rest to the Hope family in 1853), elsewhere in Co. Monaghan, and in Carrickfergus and Cullybackey, Co. Antrim. Additional records, from another source, the office of John Corrigan, Solicitor, Castleblayney (D/1406), comprise a rental with accounts of Mrs Anne Hope's estate at Castleblayney, 1878-1879, and cash books of the 8th Duke of Newcastle's estate at Castleblayney, 1931-1943. There are also some Templetown records (D/971, etc) which add a little more information to the Blayney papers proper. By 1876, the former Blayney estate at Castleblayney was owned by Viscount Templetown with 12,846 acres and Mrs Anne Hope of Castleblayney with 11,700 acres. Family history.It is hard to dissent from the verdict of E.P. Shirley that 'The consquences of the rebellion of 1641 and the revolution of 1688 were hardly less disastrous to the loyal [from E.P. Shirley's perspective] family of Blayney than they were to the native chiefs and others of the Irish who still retained their property ...'. The following account of the Blayneys has been taken from The Monaghan Story by Peadar Livingstone. 'Edward Blayney the governor of Monaghan was granted the thirty-two townlands of Ballynalurgan and in 1611 he obtained the termon of Muckno as well. Blayney built a castle, around which a Planter village soon began to grow up. This was the origin of the present town of Castleblayney. Permission was granted to hold fairs and markets in 1613 and in 1617. Castleblayney remained a village consisting of a few shops and inns and a collection of thatched cabins centred round the present Market Square till the closing quarter of the 18th century. The Blayney family claimed descent from Cadwallader, king of Cambria. Edward, the first of the Blayneys in Ireland and the founder of the town, became Baron Blayney of Monaghan on 29 July 1621. He died on 11 February 1629 and was succeeded by his son Lord Henry who took his seat in the Irish House of Lords in 1634. His castle was attacked by the Irish rebels under Hugh Mac Patrick Dubh MacMahon on 21 October 1641. Blayney made his escape and was one of the first to inform the authorities in Dublin that a rising had taken place. His wife and children were captured. Lord Henry Blayney was killed at the battle of Benburb in 1646 and his son, Edward, became the 3rd Lord Blayney. Edward sold both the family's estates in Monaghan and Castleblayney to ThomasVincent, a London merchant, in 1649 and 1653. In 1653 Richard brother of Edward married Thomas Vincent's daughter and she brought the estates back to the Blayney family as a wedding present. Richard's son Henry Vincent became 5th Lord Blayney in 1680 and he sold off most of the Monaghan estate which, after passing through the Cairnes, Murray, and Cuninghame families, was inherited by the Westenras who became the Lords Rossmore. Henry Vincent fled Castleblayney at the outbreak of the Williamite Wars and was chosen as commander-in-chief of the Protestant forces raised to defend Monaghan and Armagh against King James II. Henry Vincent died in 1689. His brother William succeeded him as 6th Lord Blayney and he was the first of the family to be buried in Castleblayney. His son and successor Cadwallader sold part of the Castleblayney estate to the Uptons, Lords Templetown, in 1723 and died in 1732. His son Charles Talbot became the 8th Lord Blayney. He was a clergyman and was both Rector of Muckno and Dean of Killaloe. He died in 1761. His brother Cadwallader became the 9th Lord Blayney and he was a distinguished soldier. Cadwallader was succeeded by two of his sons, Cadwallader who became the 10th Lord in 1775 and Andrew Thomas who became the 11th Lord in 1784. The 11th Lord, Andrew Thomas, was perhaps the most famous Blayney of all. He ruled the estate for fifty years from 1784 to 1834. He was one of the most illustrious soldiers ever to come from Co. Monaghan and as commander of the 89th Regiment of Foot, 'Blayney's Bloodhounds' as they were called, he fought with distinction in the Napoleonic Wars. He was taken prisoner when making a raid from Gibraltar into Spain and was kept prisoner for some years by the French government. He wrote a two-volume account of his experiences in the Napoleonic Wars [Narrative of a Forced Journey through Spain and France as a Prisoner of War in the Years 1810 to 1814, by Major-General Lord Blayney (London, 1814)]. He was captured by one of the O'Callaghans of Culaville, a colonel in the French army and a prominent United Irishman who escaped after 1798. It is said he insisted on Blayney being held to ransom for some of the United Irishmen who were in British prisons.'
On his return, Blayney was given a seat in parliament for Caledon's infamous 'rotten borough' of Old Sarum, Wiltshire. Later, he attempted to get Caledon to use his influence with the Government to get him elected an Irish Representative Peer. This yields a very illuminating and often pained correspondence between the two men. The 11th Lord Blayney as an original thinker.The following letter from Blayney, still a POW in Verdun, dated 10 July 1813, to his brother-in-law, the 2nd Earl of Caledon, is virtually his political credo. This displays not a little of the Social Darwinism that was only to emerge much later in the century. 'I have now to return you my sincere thanks for the part you acted for me in the support of Mr Corry at the late election and the reasons you assigned in your letter perfectly coincide with my sentiments for that support. I perceive an unfortunate question as to religion is revived in force and seems to agitate the public mind. I never should have ventured an opinion on that subject ... had it not become blended with county politics. Therefore it is right that the gentlemen of the county should be in possession of my private sentiments, however they may be deficient from my being so far removed from regular means of information as conveyed either through the channel of English pamphlets or public papers. Both of these are excluded from this country under the penalty of any person in whose possession they are found being condemned for life to the galleys. When in Ireland, I carefully abstained from conversation on religious subjects for I conceived it far better for bigotry to die a natural death than agitate a question on which so few are competent to decide. As the people seemed advancing in civilization and more attention [was being] paid to education, I was at hopes that they would be adequate to form judgements for themselves and trace back with indignation and surprise to the periods when, on the basis of religion, the people generally became the dupes of the darkest and the most dangerous plots. The freedom of my sentiments on religion are fully recorded in the separate buildings for divine worship ably executed near the town of Castleblayney, where I have contributed both in money and furnishing ground, to the Roman Catholic, the Presbyterian, and the Established Church, so as for each to have a place suited to impress them with good moral principles in their separate avocations ... My affectionate regard for the county of Monaghan and for Ireland in general is noticed not by declamation or by idle professions: it is by forming a suitable establishment, planting and improving the face of the county, and introducing a better mode of agriculture in hopes the example would be followed. My inclination is to reside much in the county. It has hitherto been impeded by my professional duties alone. My anxiety for the credit and happiness of the county would however lead me sadly to regret a Roman Catholic candidate being proposed, possibly not endowed with any mental recommendation or his nature being improved by education, his claim alone founded on being Roman Catholic. If such a person was returned he would be the instrument of a licentious mob, a disgrace to Ireland, and if all its members were Roman Catholics and of a similar stamp, their influence in the English House of Commons would not be sufficient to carry the most insignificant question. Such a candidate or such a member might renew animosity and these distinctions of religion which in former times excited France, England and other countries. ... I hear arguments adduced that the Roman Catholics of Ireland, being the most numerous, were the most formidable [and that] weak or timid persons have espoused their cause ... If they were to reason or examine [their] facts they would find that property, science, and talent predominates and has done and so does everywhere over numbers, and although the majority may be on the side of Roman Catholics as four to one in Ireland it is to be observed that the force of the British Empire is at least 12 Protestants to 4 Roman Catholics with the addition of property, science and talent in their favour. Although England might be slow to act in such a case, she would ultimately be compelled into action, while the unfortunate persons who were misled either by wicked or timid men would in the end be sacrificed, the country brought into disgrace, and retarded in its advancement towards industry, wealth or refinement. It is to be supposed that a difference of religion from the Established Church causes discontent because they pay two clergy. Supposing that be the case it is like all other fancies and those who choose to indulge should pay for them. But is to be presumed that if they paid not tithe they would have to pay so much the more rent. Let it therefore be understood that my attachment is strongly in favour of my sovereign, the established religion and constitution of my country. And as my situation leads me to know that the decisive measures acted upon by the present administration are the only ones suited to protect the independence, and maintain the dignity of Great Britain in her present arduous struggle, they have my decided support. Neither do I conceive that the Roman Catholics having political rights could be of advantage to them as a body and could only be the means of creating discord and causing confusion. The following therefore are the grounds on which a candidate has a claim to my support. 1. Resident in or [near] the county for which he is proposed as candidate. 2. Sound constitutional principles suited to maintain the dignity ... of the Empire in church and state.' 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